The thing had the foulest breath he’d ever smelled—it reeked of carnage and carrion—it was the stench of something that ate whatever rotten flesh came its way.
Except when it can get fresh meat, Brav thought grimly. Well, it wasn’t going to succeed today!
“Let him go, you fucker!” he shouted in the creature’s face. Balling up a fist, he punched it as hard as he could in one of its bulbous red eyes.
The creature shrieked and wailed but didn’t let go.
“Mine! The boy is mine!” it hissed in a thick, clotted voice that was almost more animal than humanoid. “He broke the fruit! His flesh is mine!”
“Think again!” Brav advised it. “If you don’t fucking let go of him right now, I’ll rip your fucking head off, you freak!” He balled up his fist, ready for another punch.
At last the long white claw-hand released its grip on Jerber, who collapsed into Brav’s arms.
The Riiver—it must be a Riiver—stared at Brav balefully from its one good eye while it clutched the other that he had punched.
“You will be remembered, tall one,” it hissed, glaring at him. “You and yours will pay!”
Then it loped off into the forest, keeping always in the shade of the trees, its naked white body flashing through the shadows until it disappeared.
Twenty-Seven
Danni heard the commotion from a long way off, just as she was dusting the pale purple bread flour off her hands and hanging up her apron. It sounded like male voices shouting and someone groaning in pain. She looked automatically for Navii and noticed that the other woman’s usually rose-pink cheeks had gone pale.
“Navii?” she asked, her stomach doing a nervous flip. “What happened?”
The other woman only shook her head.
“Come—we must go!” she exclaimed.
The women of the township, who had been baking bread all day with just a short break for lunch, hurried quickly out of the Communal Kitchen, worried looks on their faces. They rushed in a group down the Main Street, and Danni heard some of them whispering to each other.
“Riivers?”
“Did the men go out beyond the gate today?”
“Did the Riivers get someone?”
“Were they bitten? Oh, Mother Stone—please don’t let anyone be bitten!”
She heard the whispers and saw the same dreadful fear on every face—and the same fear began to grow in her own heart, even though she had no idea what the Riivers were or what they did.
Please, she prayed silently, though she hardly knew who she was praying to. Not Bravik—whatever it is, don’t let him be hurt!
The minute she got close enough to see the group of males clustered together, her fears were relieved, however. The big Kindred stood head and shoulders above the H’rakens and he appeared to be unhurt himself—though he was covered in bright pink H’raken blood. Cradled in his arms was the limp form of an adolescent boy, not much older than Yolii, Danni thought.
Her doctoring instincts took over and she pushed her way through the crowd, forgetting she wasn’t supposed to heal anyone but her “husband.”
“What is it? What happened?” she demanded, looking up to catch Bravik’s eyes. There were jagged wounds, like claw-marks running down the boy’s neck and bare chest. “What did this to him?”
“Riivers—I think,” he growled, looking worried. “Barely got him away in time and he’s lost a lot of blood.”
“These wounds are too deep—he’s going to lose more if we can’t close them.” Suddenly, Danni remembered the miniature cauterizer in her pocket. She’d placed it there in case Bravik got hurt while butchering an animal with the H’rakens but now she had a different use for it.
Whipping the tiny instrument out of her pocket, she aimed it at the jagged wounds and began to heal them. The cauterizer was the latest in Kindred medical technology. It sealed the blood vessels first to stop the bleeding and then began to close the wounds themselves. At last, they were nothing but pink scars.
“There—he should be all right now,” she said at last, feeling the satisfaction every doctor does on saving a life. “Just put him to bed and give him plenty of fluids for a while.”
“Uh, Danielle?” Bravik’s voice sounded uncertain.
Looking up from her patient, Danni realized the H’rakens gathered around them were looking at her in a distinctly unfriendly way.
“She healed him!” someone said. “He wasn’t her mate and yet she healed him!”
Uh-oh… Danni had a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach. The H’rakens were glaring at her—even the women she’d been making bread with all morning were shooting her looks of distrust. It was as though she had done something deeply wrong.
Only Navii came to stand beside her and put an arm around her shoulders.
“I am certain my dear friend, Danielle, was only doing what she thought was best,” she said to the crowd.
“But she healed a male who was not her mate!” one of the townspeople said. “One who should have been healed by the Mother Stone, for he is too young to be Joined himself!”